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<title>love in a time of hombies (it's hollowfied living humans, Kurosaki!) by Mister_Fox</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24419950">love in a time of hombies (it's hollowfied living humans, Kurosaki!)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mister_Fox/pseuds/Mister_Fox'>Mister_Fox</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Glimpses of Futures Gone [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Established Relationship, M/M, Prosthesis, Zombie Apocalypse, except not quite and the zombies are more fun</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 06:35:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,343</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24419950</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mister_Fox/pseuds/Mister_Fox</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Immortality experiments leave a lot to clean up, it turns out. Or, at this point, mostly try to survive.<br/>At least Kisuke's there (sometimes) waiting for him after yet another pest control assignment.<br/> </p><p>UraIchi Week 2020 - Day 4, Apocalypse/Post-Apocalypse</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kurosaki Ichigo/Urahara Kisuke</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Glimpses of Futures Gone [5]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1763494</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>88</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>UraIchi Week 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>love in a time of hombies (it's hollowfied living humans, Kurosaki!)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ichigo runs a hand through his hair, dislodging a cloud of ash from it. Urgh, he’s going to need one <em>hell</em> of a shower. Not that the decontamination shower isn’t strong, but at this point, he’s pretty sure it’s going to take bleach to get his hair back to being orange.</p><p>His clothes are a loss anyway, not that they <em>weren’t</em> black before. But he’s going to need to re-apply the luminescent graffiti again.</p><p>Next to him, Aizen is only a little cleaner. For all that he might be dealing with the Hombies from afar, eradicating their swarms with waves of kidou, even he can’t escape the ash on the wind.</p><p>The high, metres-thick walls of Camp Candy loom ahead, the ground around in front of them black and faintly smoking, hints of recent smouldering fires.</p><p>Must have had another rush of Hombies while he and Aizen were out eradicating a build up of them that was too close to New Tokyo.</p><p>The guard on top of the gate waves at them to go through, the door sliding open enough to let them through to the clearing zone.</p><p>Ichigo dumps his clothes in the decontamination hamper before going to the shower.</p><p>The scalding, chemical-infused water stings as usual and runs black as it cleans off the soot and ash, and Ichigo waits for it to start running clear before stepping out. Then it’s the usual scan for any hint of nanobot-transmitted Hollowfication contagion, which he clears just fine, and, a towel draped around himself, walks to get his normal clothes out of the locker.</p><p>He waits for Aizen to finish up, so they can figure out who gets to write the report. If Ichigo is lucky, it will be Aizen.</p><p>Why did humanity try to figure out how to trap souls in bodies after they died, just so they could make sure people who died in space would have their souls released to the afterlife on Earth? <em>Why? </em>It’s left them all with <em>so much paperwork, </em>in between fighting to save humanity, and dealing with a contagion that spans every world.</p><p>Renji waves at him, and walks over. Ichigo blinks. He didn’t know Renji was back yet from his rotation on the watchtower circuit, keeping the Hombies out of the local settlements by drawing them to the watchtowers to be subsequently eradicated. “How was the mission?”</p><p>Ichigo makes a so-so motion.</p><p>“The usual stuff. A couple of actual Menos, a whole lot of Hombies with an assortment of powers, but nothing as concerning as mind control or anything. The remnants of that settlement up north that had a quarantine breach, I think, hence the Menos. Local shinigami must have gotten infected with the humans.”</p><p>“Who’s leading on the scoreboard?”</p><p>“Me. Got them Hombies with the lightsaber, and Aizen-san did the cleanup.”</p><p>There’s an irritated sigh behind him. “Incorrect. I still lead the tally, as I actually made sure the humans <em>infected with the contagion that Hollowfies their souls while they are still alive</em>, were actually <em>dead</em>. Your haphazard eradication of them leaves much to be desired.”</p><p>Renji snorts. “I see you still haven’t gotten him to call them Hombies.”</p><p>“I tried Zomblows too, but no, he didn’t like that any better.”</p><p>“Cuz they blow, right?”</p><p>Aizen looks <em>pained</em>. “Perhaps I should leave you to your juvenile banter and go submit that report. You will almost certainly write down that menace of a word in your actual report. Or, maybe, perhaps I should stop aiding your efforts, and let you all perish.”</p><p>“Yeah, but then the only company you would have left is Hollows and Hombies that would keep trying to eat you.”</p><p>Aizen looks like he genuinely wishes that he wasn’t above flipping him off as he stalks away to do paperwork.</p><p>Hah. Thanks, Renji.</p><p>“See you around, then. Hey, Renji, is Kisuke around?”</p><p>“Should be in his lab, I think. Came back from Tokyo yesterday, I think, was working on the ward generators there.”</p><p>“You mean fleecing the local Fullbringers in arm-wrestling matches in bars?”</p><p>“That too.”</p><hr/><p>Ichigo strolls through the camp to the lab, ignoring the Shinigami, Fullbringers, and the occasional human staff wandering about.</p><p>The door camera blinks at him for a second, before letting him through.</p><p>The place is a buzzing hive of activity, with no one even sparing him a glance as he goes to Kisuke’s office.</p><p>He doesn’t bother to knock as he goes in.</p><p>Kisuke’s sprawled on the couch, typing in a datapad with his left hand, his right arm limp, the lights on the grooves off, a charging cable stretching to the wall.</p><p>“What happened?” Ichigo asks, frowning. Kisuke’s <em>never</em> been out of spare batteries for his arms ever since he had to cut one of them off when an overly enthusiastic flying Hombie got a bite of it.</p><p>The contagion is fast, but Shinigami reflexes faster. Kisuke might have walked away without an arm, but at least he had walked away.</p><p>“Someone decided that their lightsaber needed charging more than my batteries, and disconnected them from the Watchtower electricity generator while I was working on the wards. And there was an unfortunately long fight when I decided to take the scenic route home.”</p><p>“Ah. The charging dock asshole phenomenon.”</p><p>Kisuke smiles. “Well, I’ll know who it is when they put in a request for a new modified lightsaber.”</p><p>“<em>Kisuke</em>.”</p><p>“There are plenty of other weapons to use. The lack of fluids and potentially contaminated materials <em>are</em> the reasons we’ve switched to fire and light-based weaponry, but if the individual in question relies solely on his laser sword- they need to <em>stop</em> doing that. Or they’ll be in trouble if they run out of power on the field.” With a careless shrug, Kisuke types something on the datapad, and then shuts it off, moving all of his attention to Ichigo.</p><p>“So, is this a work or social visit? If you want to know if I’ve yet figured out a way to age you up a little so you stop looking like you did two centuries ago when you fell off the Soul King’s palace after defeating Yhwach, and <em>pancaked</em> your living body on the ground, then no, I have not yet figured that out.”</p><p>Ichigo groans, shoving Kisuke’s legs aside to make space on the couch. He’d sit on them, but Kisuke's liable to just fling him across the room at the funniest possible moment. “Two centuries, and you are <em>still</em> bringing that up. Can you please, <em>please </em>stop?”</p><p>Kisuke laughs, bright and clear in a way that always makes Ichigo’s heart do a <em>thing</em>, and shakes his head. “Maybe in another two hundred years.”</p><p>“I missed you,” Ichigo says, quieter, more serious. “I know they need you literally <em>everywhere</em>, and me too, but…”</p><p>“Not a lot of downtime where we’re both free, and our jobs are too different,” Kisuke finishes for him. He sits up properly, and reaches out for Ichigo, hand cupping his face. The metal fingers are warm, too warm, from overuse, but they feel nice against his skin. When the joins between the plates doesn’t accidentally end up pinching it, anyway.</p><p>Ichigo closes his eyes, just enjoying the moment.</p><p>For all that the situation is stable- They are busy, and resting time is infrequent.</p><p>“There’s a new restaurant in London. If you have time today, we could use the Senkaimon system for a quick trip?”</p><p>Kisuke smiles softly. “I would be delighted. Do you need a hand with getting us permission to go?”</p><p>...Did he seriously have to ruin the moment like that?</p><p>“I’m going to have to tell Rukia to reset the ‘Days since last hand joke’ counter. You know, you’ve used that one too many times to ever catch us out again?”</p><p>“I can always hope. And you don’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to this, considering how many times you’ve beaten up enemies with one of my spare arms.”</p><p>“You <em>bastard</em>.”</p><p>“Isn’t that why you love me?”</p><p>Ichigo doesn’t dignify that with a response.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Comments and kudos are my food and water.</p><p>Here's a link to <a href="https://discordapp.com/invite/ADFnKTZ#_=_">Cywscross' UraIchi Discord Server</a>!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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